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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424662">Crash the Surface</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/day_dream_girl/pseuds/day_dream_girl'>day_dream_girl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EastEnders (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Soft Boys, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, post-episode</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 18:00:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424662</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/day_dream_girl/pseuds/day_dream_girl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little post episode scene from Friday. Completely fluffy, rom-com inspired schmaltz.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>157</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Crash the Surface</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is total fantasy, rom-com fluff. But I feel justified given the Hollywood chick-flick scenes we got on Friday. So if it's angst you're looking for, turn away now ;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The flat is the same as he left it that morning; breakfast plates that Stuart and Rainie had used still on the draining board, bills still piled up on the side table, but everything’s changed. Everything’s brighter and warmer and better because of the man following him through their front door. </p><p>“Right, I’m going to make you dinner. Anything you want, so what do you fancy?” Callum’s smile is wide and bright, his joy and happiness radiating from him in glorious waves. “Ben?” He turns to find the man he loves standing with his head bent and eyes closed. His fingers trail along the back of the sofa and he seems lost in his own world.</p><p>Callum approaches him softly, reaching out to cradle his face. “Ben?”</p><p>Ben lets out a shaky breath and opens his eyes, shiny and bright. His fingers curl loosely around Callum’s wrists before he’s fully able to focus on the man standing in front of him; holding him like he’s something precious. “I was... I was just thinking about the last time I was here,” he admits quietly. “Never thought I’d be back here again. Not like this anyway. With you.”</p><p>Callum’s thumbs brush lightly back and forth across Ben’s skin, eager to familiarise themselves again with the softness and warmth underneath. He can see the dark bruises painted beneath the brilliant blue of his eyes, telling of sleepless nights, and how stress has kissed creases on to his paper white skin.</p><p>“Well you <i>are</i> here and I’m here, and we’re not going anywhere. You and me Ben. We can do anything; get through anything as long as we’re together. As long as we don’t shut each other out!”</p><p>Ben can’t blink away the tears that fall from his eyes, everything overwhelming him and needing an outlet. </p><p>“Don’t shut me out again, Ben.”</p><p>“I won’t,” Ben replies immediately, “I promise, Callum. I promise. You and me, yeah?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Callum agrees, “you and me.” He leans closer and kisses Ben gently, tenderly, his heart beating rapidly at having this man back in his arms.</p><p>When they pull apart, Ben looks at him like he hung the moon and he can’t help the smile that spreads across his face.  Callum turns towards the kitchen, reaching for his phone. “I’ll text Stu, tell him the flat is out of bounds tonight for him and Rainie. How about you get changed into something more comfortable and I’ll get started on something to eat.  Chicken pasta sound alright?”</p><p>Ben smiles gently at him. “Sounds amazing, babe.” He looks down at the bag at his feet and frowns. “I’m not even sure what I packed in this thing, to be honest. Could be filled with duvet sheets for all I know.”</p><p>“You’re navy pyjamas are in the bottom drawer in you’re looking for them. Only got round to putting on a dark wash the other day.”</p><p>“Ya washed my clothes?” Ben blinks at him, a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth.</p><p>“Course I did. Weren’t going to leave them lying around, stinking up the place, was I?”</p><p>“No,” Ben rolls his eyes and wraps his arms around Callum’s waist, “I mean, ya washed them after I...after we broke up. You washed them and put them away?”</p><p>Callum shrugs, leaving his phone on the counter and wrapping his arms around Ben.  “Well, I knew you’d be back, didn’t I? Although, I’ll admit, this morning when I found ya packing I wasn’t quite so sure.”</p><p>“I don’t know what I did to deserve you Callum Highway. But I ain’t going anywhere and I ain’t letting ya go again.”</p><p>“Good,” Callum kisses his forehead, “now go get changed, I’ll get started on this.” He winks at Ben and pats him on the arse as he disappears into the bedroom.</p><p>Ben can already feel himself begin to relax once he’s sat back at the table and they’ve had their fill of dinner. Ben loves Callum’s cooking. As much as he loves his Mum’s, there’s something Callum does he can’t explain, even with a packet soup, that makes it taste amazing. He swears he’d eat anything if that man cooked it. </p><p>They’re curled up on the sofa, the waning sun is slowly shadowing the flat in darkness but neither dares move and break this moment of peace and belonging that they’ve both missed over the past month. Ben’s eyes feel heavy and his head falls further down Callum’s chest towards his lap. The telly is on low, playing something he’s not even sure what, but it’s a nice soundtrack to Callum pulling him close and stroking him gently with long fingers that cradle Ben’s body closer to him.</p><p>“It’s okay, you can go to sleep if ya want. I don’t mind,” Callum smiles at him, kissing the top of his head and running a hand through his soft hair.</p><p>Ben blinks sleepily up at him. “I haven’t slept in a month; I think I’ve forgotten how.”</p><p>“Just close your eyes,” Callum tells him quietly, “I’m here, I’ll look after ya.”</p><p>Ben kisses his chest and murmurs, “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“For what?” </p><p>“For what I, what I said, Callum. The night I...left. I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Hey, don’t worry about that now, alright? It’s over now, we’re moving on. Together.”</p><p>“No, I,” Ben pushes back a bit so he can sit up and look at Callum’s face. The face he loves so fiercely and missed so much. “I told you I don’t love you.” Ben shakes his head and takes one of Callum’s hands in his. “That I don’t want your love. That ain’t true. That’s <i>so far</i> from the truth, but I needed you to not love me, because you’re so good, so pure and I don’t want to ruin that.”</p><p>“You really think it’s that easy to stop me from loving you?”</p><p>Ben looks down and shrugs. </p><p>“Ben, I don’t know why ya think I’m some sort of saint. I ain’t some pure and innocent, Disney princess, and I ain’t interested in being put up on a pedestal. I want ya to see me as an <i>equal</i>, a <i>partner</i>. Cos, that’s what I want, Ben. That’s the only way we can work; if we’re partners, if we deal with things together, as equals. That’s what I want, more than anything.”</p><p>“Me too,” Ben admits quietly, “you and me.”</p><p>“You and me,” Callum echoes.</p><p>Ben kisses him on the cheek, lingering on the warmth beneath his lips. </p><p>“And I <i>do</i> want you to love me,” Ben tells him urgently, “I want ya to love me so much you never look at another bloke again. And Rainie can stick her matchmaking skills where the sun don’t shine, and all.”</p><p>“Done.”</p><p>Ben reaches up and holds Callum’s face reverently. “Just like that, eh?”</p><p>Callum hums in agreement as Ben kisses him, straddling his thighs. Callum rubs his hands up and down his back soothingly as they continue kissing, and Ben eventually pulls away. “Ya know how I feel about you, right?”</p><p>“Course I do. Same way I feel about you.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Ben agrees, “I...” he trails off, but the words get stuck in his throat, and he’s annoyed at himself for being scared of what will happen if he says it out loud.</p><p>“It’s okay,” Callum soothes him, hands tracing his back reassuringly. “I know. I don’t need to hear it. I know it, I <i>feel</i> it, I <i>see</i> it. Every time ya look at me.”</p><p>Ben stares at him, “the last time I said it was...was Paul and then he, he.”</p><p>“Look at me, Ben,” Callum squeezes him, “do I look upset? I love you, and I know how you feel about me, I don’t need any-”</p><p>“I love you,” Ben tells him. He waits for something, but nothing happens. Callum is still here, beneath him, grinning at him like someone has given him some grand prize, instead of being shouldered with the burden of Ben Mitchell’s love. He doesn’t fight the small, answering smile that blooms across his own face. “I love you.” He rests his forehead against Callum’s and breathes deeply.  “That feels good to say.”</p><p>“Sounds pretty good to hear, too,” Callum tells him, voice suspiciously thick.</p><p>Ben pulls back, and meets his boyfriend’s beautiful eyes. “I am in love with you, Callum Highway.”</p><p>Callum’s grin and tight grip is infectious and Ben finds himself grinning back. </p><p>“I am in love with you too, Ben Mitchell. Nothing would make me happier than if you would join me in bed and let me hold ya while we sleep.”</p><p>“Oh,” Ben closes his eyes and moans softly, “that sounds like heaven.”</p><p>“Yeah, it does.  So what’s stopping us, eh?”</p><p>“Absolutely nothing,” Ben traces a finger down his face, “I’m so glad I fell in love with a genius. Take me to bed, Mr Highway.”</p><p>“My pleasure, Mr Mitchell.”</p>
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